Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (17 December 2004)
directed by Brad Silberling
starring Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Luis Guzmán, Jamie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Cedric the Entertainer
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MPAA rating: Studio: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Nickelodeon Movies Script: Robert Gordon Based on the book by: Daniel Handler Music: Thomas Newman Running time: 108 minutes Tags: Adventure; arson; boats; caves; Comedy; conspiracy; Family Film; Fantasy; lakes; marriage; novel adaptation; orphans; reptiles Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language
Brad Silberling's movie Lemmony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events successfully blends the stories from the first three books of the series, The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window. The movie takes the best aspects of mood and character from the books and leaves behind or improves upon many of the annoying aspects of the books, such as repeatedly defining words and interpreting baby talk.
The Baudelaire children, Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken), and Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman), lose their parents in a fire that burns down their family mansion. The family lawyer/banker Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall) informs the children of their loss and that they must now live with their relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey). The Count runs an acting troupe, and he makes very little effort to conceal his plans to obtain the vast fortune left to the children by their parents -- which, of course, remains in trust until the children come of age. The children move from one dismal situation to the next trying to convince the adults around them of the Count's evil intentions only to narrowly escape his plans for their demise time and again.
In most cases where I have both read the book and seen the movie adaptation, I recommend the book as the better experience. In the case of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I have to recommend the movie over the books. In the books, Daniel Handler gives his narrator Lemony Snicket a heavy handed role in describing the orphpans' adventures. The narrator repeatedly warns the reader to put down the book to prevent reading about the terrible events. He also defines words for the reader and interprets Sunny's baby talk. In moderation, these narrative characteristics provide a nice humorous tone, but in excess weigh the narrative down and interfere with my enjoyment of the story. In the movie, Jude Law plays the narrator, and his narration provides just enough of the narrative detail to set the same tone as the books but never becomes overbearing. Also, the movie uses subtitles to interpret Sunny's dialogue, so we don't have to have an aside that takes us away from the action. So the overall experience with the movie provides a much smoother experience with far fewer distractions.
I really liked the set design, which creates a comic universe where these things can happen. For example, instead of CD players, cars have reel-to-reel tape players, and all the colors resemble an old brown and white photograph. Because of this comic setting, we have some assurance that the characters can do outlandish things, experience serious attempts on their lives, and survive without a scratch -- in spite of the narrator's warnings about the horrific events that befall the Baudelaire orphans.
I also have to recognize Jim Carrey's work as Count Olaf. He too adds to the comic book atmosphere, where supervillains relentlessly pursue their cause, but does so with such comic genius, that you can't think of any other actor that could fill this role. To me, Carrey's work here far surpasses other comic roles such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas or Batman Forever.
The DVD provides some interesting commentary from the director, but the screen test footage about costume and character development bored me, and I used the fast forward feature to get to the commentary.
Related Reviews
The Bad Beginning written by Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room written by Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window written by Lemony Snicket
